Running From Fate (29 page)

“In a minute,”
he
murmured.
He wrapped his arms around
her
and pulled her against h
im
.

Any protest that Mira might have made was immediately silenced as she came in vibrant contact with James’ muscular body from chest to thighs.
Giving into the feeling she wrapped her arms around his neck
snuggled her head into his chest.
He was too tall
for her
to put her head on his shoulder but, this way, she could hear the soft
, steady
beat of his heart.
It felt right.

James felt Mira’s body relax into him and he subtly pulled her closer, letting his hands rest on the silky skin at the base of her spine.
They moved slowly around the room, locked in a private bubble that contained only the two of them.
He
felt his body start to heat and his thoughts turned fuzzy.
He was sure that Mira could feel his burgeoning desire for her and he knew that
he was probably moving too quickly and he didn’t want to scare her off
, but he couldn’t make himself move back.
Instead, he pulled her even closer.

As they swept around the floor Mira’s body started to tingle and her thoughts clouded.
The other dancers became nothing but vague shadows until it was only the two of them in the glittering room.
She felt an almost overwhelming urge to rub against him like a cat
, but she knew that there was a reason why she shouldn’t.
In an effort to break the spell that seemed to be drawing them closer together,
she
tried to
think of something to say
.
 
“Beautiful
party
isn’t it?”
s
he finally forced out.

“Mmm.
”
He rubbed his cheek against her hair and tightened his arms.

She
shivere
d from head to foot and gave in, snuggling
closer and
shutting
her eyes.

When the song finished several minutes later they continued to stand together swaying to some unheard music.
If it hadn’t been for some tipsy partier bumping into them they might have stayed that way all night.
Instead, they jumped apart like guilty teenagers.

James quickly put some space between them and tried to tug his jacket down.
He had no idea what had just happened, but he d
esperately
needed
to clear his head
.
With
Mira’s smell still surrounding him
that was impossible
.  He
needed air.
Without a word, he turned and headed toward the door that opened onto a moonlit patio.

Mira stood in the middle of the floor and watch
ed
him walk off.
She had
known
that she was very attracted to James, but this had been something different
.  She needed time to clear her head and sort out what it all meant
.
After a somewhat forlorn sigh, she headed toward the ladies room.

The gleaming white room featured the requisite row of stall
s and sinks, but it also had several
vanities complete with lighted mirrors, padded benches and even a blow dryer.
The place was empty except for one woman who sat at one of the vanities re-applying her bright red lipstick.
Of course it had to be
Kimberly Richards, the l
ast person Mira wanted
to see,
but s
he refused to be chas
ed out of the bathroom.

She
straightened her shoulders
and marched
by
to take a seat at the final vanity
and
critically studied her face in the mirror.
Besides a slight
flush to
her cheeks she didn’t look any different and, despite the dancing, her makeup was
fine
.
She
pretended to study her face
for several
more
minutes, hoping that the other woman would leave and she could have a few moments alone.

Kimberly
finally
stood up
,
but instead of leaving she headed toward Mira.

“This is far from over,” the
blond
woman growled
from behind her
.
In the mirror, Mira could see the woman’s eyes narrow menacingly
.
“If you think you can get away with taking James from me, you’re dead wrong.”

Mira thought that the warning was a bit much, but she wasn’t going to let some
blond
bimbo intimidate her.
Despite the fact that she wasn’t even positive that she truly wanted him for her own she looked up and locked eyes with Kimberly through the mirror. 
“Just watch me
,
”
she said.
She stood up, pushed Kim out of the way and walked away
,
trying to put 
the woman and the incident from her mind
, and ignoring the enraged screeching that came from behind her.
  She still had James to deal with.

When she re-entered the room though, he had turned back into a distant, icy man.  For t
he rest of the night
he
walked around with her, introducing her to area businessmen and women, but he seemed determined to keep as much space as possible between them.
When the party was
over they drove home in silence and he left her at her door
with
a polite goodbye
.

Mira wasn’t sure exactly what to expect when she got to work Monday morning.
She
didn’t know
what had happened on Friday, but James had barely talke
d to her after that last dance. 
Considering his reaction, she expected him to avoid her
completely
.
She
tried not to feel let down and reminded herself that she had already
decided to stay away from him so s
he would just
have to
do her best to put him out of her mind.

Amy, apparently, had other ideas.
She cornered Mira as she was getting a cup of coffee and pulled
her away from the usual crowd of zombie
s
competing for a caffeine fix
.
“Spill,” she said
as she pushed Mira down on a sofa and sat next to her. 
“Was he totally floored by the dress or what?”

Mira
smiled, looked at her friend, and tried to inject some drama into the telling
.  It
was the least
Amy
deserved after she gave up her night to help. 
“His eyes
literally
glazed over when he first saw the back
of the dress
.
”
And his hands had been warm and knowing when he had run them over her exposed skin.
She suppressed a shiver and tried not to think about it.

“I knew it,” Amy said.
She leaned closer.
“So what did you talk about?
Did you dance together?
What ha
ppened when he brought you home?
Anything
exiting?”

Mira laughed at her enthusiasm and tried to think of something
more
titillating to tell
her without giving her the wrong impression about their relationship
.
Finally, she just decided to tell the truth. 
“It was a business engagement so most of the talk was about architecture
, but the hotel was beautiful.”
 
Amy looked disappointed and she searched for something else to say.
Finally it hit her
. 
“I did see the gorgeous Kimberly.
She came with arm candy, a young muscular man.”

Amy’s voice lowered in conspiracy. 
“Did she say anything to you?”

“We had a nice little verbal fight
in the women’s bathroom
.”
Mira fluffed her hair.
“I left Kim speechless, however, so I belie
ve that I won our skirmish.
She threw a couple of badly worded threats at me, but I got in the last word.
”

“Really,” Amy said.
“What did she say?”

“Oh just the usual
.
Y
ou haven’t heard the last of me and things like that.
It was actually pretty amusing.”

“You don’t think
that
she would actually try something, do you?”

“Like what?
” 
Mira laughed.
“Steal my clothes.
Don’t worry about it
.  It
was just an empty threat.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Amy looked ready to add something else, but the rest of the staff walked in and
the opportunity for speaking in private
was lost
.

After the morning
’s
meeting Mira got stuck into her work.
She was currently designing the water feature that would go in the huge lobby of the resort project.
It was supposed to be large and ornate and yet elegant and rustic.
The owner wanted to them to use all natural and, preferably, local material.

This would normally be a challenging project, but it was made much more difficult by the fact that the entire unit had to be completely self-contained.
The resort would be built almost into the side of a mountain.
That meant bedrock so
the
wire
s
needed to power it
could not run under
the floor, at le
a
st not easily. 
The feature would also sit in the middle of the floor so running wires up a wall wouldn’t work.